Friday November 16, 2007
‘Didn’t used to’ is wrong
Open Channel
I CANNOT help but agree with the Editor of Mind Our English that the phrase didn’t used to is deemed grammatically wrong. Yet reader Anuradha sends evidence from the BBC that says otherwise (Nov 9).
Nevertheless, we cannot run away from the fact that the locution used to is not a phrasal adjective (when didn’t used to would make no sense) but a phrasal verb (but then the auxiliary verb did should carry the lexical verb in the infinitive).
On a grammatical basis, didn’t used to is odd. On this point, one may sideline the examples from the BBC and refer to a greater English Language authority, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (2004) – and I quote:
“Confusion can arise over whether to write used to or use to, largely because the pronunciation is the same in both cases. Except in negatives and questions, the correct form is used to: we used to go to the cinema all the time. However, in negatives and questions using the auxiliary verb do, the correct form is use to, because the form of the verb required is the infinitive: I didn’t use to like mushrooms.”
Incidentally, the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (1990), under the entry used to, gives the negative form used not to, with the contracted forms usedn’t and usen’t to, but such “negative and question patterns are old-fashioned and very formal”.
– Dr Lim Chin Lam, Penang
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